We're missing a *major* opportunity if we think health IT is limited to giving providers new systems. In my own cancer, sure I read & shared my online medical data in PatientSite, but the most valuable info I got anywhere was from my ACOR cancer patient community. Every condition needs something like this. Microscopic cost, enormous payback!

Limiting a patient's choice to a region or a certain group of doctors and hospitals puts at risk some patients' lives when those patients have a less common cancer (kidney, for instance) or a rare disease. What can be done so a patient does not have to choose between their family's financial ruin or the healthcare that could save/prolong their life?

Five percent of the population uses up fifty percent of the healthcare dollars. The other 95% are relatively healthy. Physicians, patient advocates, and public health officials all agree that enormous amounts of acute care is avoidable through healthier behaviors, yet insurance actuaries and employers say the ROI of wellness is "hard to prove"?

What new initiatives will the Obama plan include to help people stay healthier and avoid medical care, and incent payors, employers, and medical professionals to go along?

Just getting EMRs implemented is only the first step. What are plans around making the data appropriately shareable and portable among different providers engaged in patient care. How will already time-pressed docs and clinical support staff be supported in leveraging these records for improved care effectiveness and efficiency?

With the current push for Healthcare IT adoption, how will the Obama administration enable (or postpone) structural changes around how profit (surplus) and revenue (reimbursement) are planned to align incentives of appropriate care versus volume of care. (i.e. DRG vs. Fee for service)

Patients will need to understand issues around privacy, access, and portabilty of their digital records, as these records become more pervasive as a result of the new incentives. How can we engage patients as supportive partners in making sure the electronic information in their records is accurate, complete, and being appropriately contextualized?

Obama plans to modernize health records such that they remain in digital form as opposed to the majority of records, which are stored in filing cabinets. For those who scoff at the idea, why is this so problematic? Do you feel like your privacy is put directly under threat?

How can we leverage the ground breaking models being used in Africa for mobile health to bring low cost solutions to the US? The new Federal money could be used as seed money for low cost high impact solutions vs replacing private sector funds.

74% of Americans are online and 80% of them use the Internet for health searches, yet physicians often don't acknowledge this during a consultation. Could the sheets patients fill out on a clipboard before a visit include a question about concerns raised by any searches? Could doctors ask during a consultation? Should doctors recommend Web sites to patients, especially newly diagnosed ones? Finally, could such measures or others on the part of physicians help to increase patient health literacy skills?

Does the new Administration have a particular starting-point in mind for using eHealth? Among providers? Among patients? Between the two? I.e., what are they likely to start promoting and funding -- presumably where the best cost efficiency is?

Much has been touted about the broader coverage offered to EU citizens by their respective nationalized healthcare systems. Conversely, these same systems, with special mention of the NHS in the UK, are suffering from growing debt leading some citizens to pay extra for private health insurance.

Will US healthcare policy follow the EU model of public healthcare systems or will the highly segmented market resist causing wide discrepancies in basic healthcare at increasing prices?